A crowd of people gather for a rally demanding the resignation of President Yoon Suk Yeol at the front gate of the National Assembly in Seoul, Saturday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
SK, KT, LG step up monitoring on upcoming rallies
By Lee Min-hyung
Telecom firms will remain in emergency mode to prevent any unexpected network shutdowns at some major gathering points in Seoul and metropolitan cities, as the public, angered by the National Assembly's failed attempt to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, are expected to continue taking to the streets, industry officials said Sunday.
The move came in reaction to public discomfort caused by a temporary network error in Yeouido in Seoul, Saturday, when a huge crowd of people staged a protest demanding the resignation or impeachment of Yoon for his sudden declaration of martial law on Tuesday night.
As mass rallies are expected to continue amid the ongoing political turmoil, the nation’s three major telecom firms, such as SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, are stepping up their monitoring at major rally venues.
They are deploying mobile base stations there and increasing their traffic capacity to prevent any further network shutdowns.
Officials from the telecom industry said they are heightening vigilance in such regions and taking appropriate measures for stable network supply.
“We will strengthen our efforts to operate a stable telecommunications network at major rallying points nationwide,” an official from a telecom firm said. “Most telecom firms have already experienced such network failures themselves, so we do not expect any further problems.”
KT opened an emergency control center in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, to enhance its monitoring on the rallies and take immediate action in case of traffic overload. The telecom firm is also operating mobile base stations in Yeouido and other key venues for rallies, such as Gwanghwamun and Yongsan District in central Seoul.
President Yoon Suk Yeol bows in apology for causing political unrest triggered by his botched martial law declaration, at the presidential office in Seoul, Saturday. Yonhap
LG Uplus also pledged to do its utmost by leveling up its monitoring on real-time network traffic in the regions where people are expected to gather for rallies.
Another industry official said the latest network failure was attributable to the abrupt mass gathering.
“Telecom firms typically deploy mobile base stations at venues of concerts or protests, but the companies did not expect such a huge crowd people to gather for the rallies in multiple locations on Saturday,” the official said.
But as the protests are widely expected to continue until Yoon steps down either by impeachment or voluntary resignation, telecom firms will keep tightening their vigilance for additional rallies, according to the official.
Naver and Kakao, the two most representative IT platform operators here, have also entered a similar emergency mode following their temporary service disruptions when Yoon declared martial law.
Naver, the dominant internet portal operator, plans to strengthen its real-time monitoring for overloading of its web traffic. Kakao also began operating its own emergency response system on the day and expanded servers to stably respond to any possible traffic congestion.
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